1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive seat having an built-in inflatable cushion (or air cushion) device wherein some inflatable cushion elements are provided in required local areas of the seat for improved cushion purpose and controllable as to their respective inflation amounts by means of associated control elements.
2. Description of Prior Art
There are various sorts of automotive seats that allows for adjustment of its cushioning condition to alleviate fatigue and pains caused in a seat occupant's buttocks portion, waist portion and back portion due to a long period of time of his or her seating on the seat.
Of these kinds of seats, there has been known an automotive seat of air cushion type wherein inflatable cushion elements (normally, bag-like inflatable cushion elements) are arranged in a predetermined manner and can each be controlled as to its inflation and deflation by associated control elements so as to adjustably provide an optimum cushion effect to the desired body portions of seat occupant. In general, in such type of seat, an inflatable cushion element is disposed in each of local areas of seat corresponding to each of the seat occupant's buttocks and lateral side portions, and an air supply/suction means is operatively connected with such inflatable cushion element so as to cause adjustable inflation and deflation of the latter. Such air supply/suction means disposed on a floor r of automobile or other areas of automobile. An example thereof is shown from the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-224137, according to which, an air pump, an electric motor, a distributor and controllers are provided as one air supply unit which acts as the foregoing air supply/suction means, and such air supply unit is disposed on the floor to avoid vibration of the seat. This is because, if the air supply unit is disposed in the seat, a vibration from the motor and air pump is directly transmitted to a whole of the seat, which will result in making a seat occupant thereon uncomfortable.
However, the foregoing conventional disposition of the air supply unit is found defective in that (i) the air supply unit occupies much of the floor area under the seat and thus such occupied floor area can not be used for other various purposes, and (ii) since the air supply unit is a unit separate from the seat, it is technically difficult and troublesome to properly mount it on the floor or a given part of automobile,